Thank you Cordelia for making this website!

[mirrorgirl]

And I thought I was the only one. I didn't even know what to call it. When I got on the internet and began to  finally ask questions I found out that it was called Maladaptive Daydreaming. I am now pushing 40 yrs old and this will be the first time I ever speak about it to anyone. I have missed out on soooo much of my life because of my "other worlds". The education, job opportunities, dating, marriage, learning how to drive a car etc etc. because of daydreaming. I am a Pisces and an introvert. I was abused as a child and to escape I took refuge in my mind. And never left.

[Amari]

I was just thinking about making a post like this even though I only joined about a week ago.  I'm so lucky to have discovered such a helpful community at such a young age.  I started after I watched my dad physically abuse my mom and emotionally abuse my brothers and I.  It started off really small with tiny little fantasies.  Now I have a full blown world in my mind that I'm beginning to appreciate because of this website.  

Anyways, hopefully with the help of this website I won't have to miss out on things since I now have an external outlet for my internal world.  Thanks so much Cordelia!

[Tinkerbell]

I'm glad that Cordelia made this website too, I think it actually saved me.  Before I found this website; I was about to go to the Dr and ask to be committed because I just couldn't understand what was wrong with me and couldn't control it properly.  Now that has changed and this website had allowed me to understand more of this condition.  It has also given me the courage to tell me mother, boyfriend and brother (who also has MD) about this problem.  

I was sexually abused by my mother's boyfriend and that is what triggered off my MD.  I experienced other forms of abuse throughout my life and the more isolated I became the greater it grew.  #

I now know that for me despite enjoying being alone, I have to always be active doing something or my MD just comes out to play.  I am not always the most social person and yet I must force myself into these situations or else I will be MDing 24/7.

Thank fully I don't feel like I have missed out on much in life due to my MD as bad as it has been, I have still never allowed it to prevent me from doing what I want to do.

[Sandra]

I'm a Pisces, too. Weird. Or maybe not. I have let many opportunities escape me, being trapped in my head. And it sucks in here. But outside of my head sucks more. People are who I want them to be in my head. I was abused and the 'wrong guys' gravitate towards me. And I gravitate towards them. At least we aren't alone in this now

[Joey B]

Here here!

I'm 26 and I missed out on so many stupid and otherwise semi-important milestones due to having fake ones in this dream world.  This site is huge help.  I actually figured out what it was from that experience project and it led me here and it's bittersweet!  Hooray I'm not alone but, crap this isn't an easy fight. 

Pisces introvert here too! hahaha.  Anyway, I think many of us may have had some kind of trauma that led to this and trauma is so individual that it could have been absolutely anything and it just never left us alone. :/  

Anyway, at least knowing what it is is a huge relief and now figuring out how to either moderate it or eliminate it (for most) is the goal and sadly not enough medical figures know much about it let alone how to take direction with it. (Or may not even take it seriously!  So many want to just push antidepressants, at least where I am. Bleh!) 

Good luck. =) 

[mirrorgirl]

People ask why I am not married. For my entire life I have been  too involved in the fantasy relationships that I created with movie stars I have crushes on throughout my life. I am me in these dreams but I am younger and beautiful. In real life I have struggled with weight issues and bad skin. Because I have low self esteem issues I have only attracted negative men into my life who exploited my insecurities. This is one of the bad parts of MDD... I never really got to build myself esteem to attract the good men in the world because I have been too busy dreaming I was this "other girl".  I have tried going to a counselor but they did not quite understand my addiction to daydreaming and just told me to "stop".  They did not really understand.

[Lucrezia Duchessa]

Am also new to the site. I'm always surprised when I hear that people missed out on a lot due to MDD... I am only 20 and have barely experienced life... and my daydreaming keeps me from experiencing new things, in the sense that I am so insecure that I prefer to retreat to my DDs at every possible turn. I wasn't abused but I've always been very sensitive so simple teasing triggers off my DDs and I become so immersed in self-pity and loathing that I stay in the DDs.

Anyway.

I've been lurking here for quite a while. I am so happy for you that you've found this site. If I had to choose one word to describe, it would be: bottled-up. So I definitely understand your sentiment when you say that this is the first time that you're speaking about it to anyone.

[Cristiano]

I think that everyone that has MD thinks that it only happens to themselves. It is difficult to find information about MD. I also found out that my problem was called Maladaptive Daydream recently. I have the same problems that you do. I also had problems in my childhood and I think that those problems created my MD. In addition, I never had a good relationship with my parents. As a consequence of this, most of the times I kept myself  and didn't spoke about my problems to anyone. Two years ago I had the worst year of my life I could not concentrate on almost anything but my daydreams. I did not went out to anywhere and lived inside my mind. I never told to anyone my problems but now that I know that there are a lot of people that have the same problems that I do, I feel better.

have a nice week.

peace